The present invention provides portable apparatus that allows rescue personnel to rapidly force open a partially crushed automobile body and to passively hold open the aperture that they thereby make so that they can easily remove a trapped accident victim from the vehicle.
The prior art offers a variety of tools and methods to forcibly make a rescue opening in a crushed automobile body. These approaches generally leave the tools (e.g. a hydraulic ram) in a position that obstructs the aperture that it forms. Moreover, prior art equipment generally does not provide effective means of holding the rescue aperture open, except by maintaining hydraulic pressure in the actuator.
Other prior art rescue techniques involve using saws, torches, or hydraulically-powered shears for cutting away major portions of a damaged vehicle body so that rescuers can gain access to a trapped victim. These methods all carry a risk of further injury to the trapped victim if the vehicle body collapse further when key structural elements are cut away.
Prior patent art in this area is represented by:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,577,881, wherein Markovics teaches the use of a hydraulic actuator with suitable extension and vehicle-body clamping members. Markovics combines this with a jack frame that is pin-lockable and that has a telescoping frame for setting up a best initial fit. Markovics' jack frame is installed external to the vehicle and does not incorporate a lock that would hold it in position so that the actuating cylinder could be removed.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,891,187, wherein Bearden teaches a hydraulic actuator that is adapted to either "push" (i.e. act as an internal expanding hydraulic actuator) and "pull" (i.e. act externally on an automobile body by using the combination of a chain and a clevis hook at the end of an expandable hydraulic actuator) to form a rescue aperture.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,273,311, wherein Rio teaches a hydraulic spreader comprising two jaws that can be inserted into a small opening and then moved away from each other by a hydraulic mechanism so as to form a rescue opening. One version of Rio's device has jaws that can be pivoted out of the way once an opening has been made so as to offer the rescuers improved access to the victim. Rio requires continued hydraulic pressure to keep his jaws in an open position--i.e. he does not have a mechanical lock that protects against a leak in the hydraulic system.
Improvements to Rio's tool, which is of the sort generically known in the field as the `jaws of life`, have been offered by Wilson et al in U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,054 and by Ganley in U.S. Pat. No. 4,896,862.
Patten, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,088,006, teaches a hydraulic jack frame with a manually settable mechanical lock for use in an automotive body and frame straightening shop. The composite apparatus taught by Patten involves not only a jack frame, but also a track that is anchored to the shop floor. The lock on Patten's jack frame requires hydraulic pressure for its release, and maintains tension in a portion of a chain external to the jack frame. Neither Patten's locking mechanism nor his requirement of a frame anchored to a floor is compatible with use for rescue purposes.